Former Navy SEAL Powers the Battlefield With Hybrid Generators

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Former Navy SEAL Powers the Battlefield With Hybrid Generators

Doug Moorehead in the lab.Photo: Brian Ulrich

BRIAN ULRICH

Take one Navy SEAL; add an MIT materials- science degree and a Harvard MBA. Result: one ass-kicking entrepreneur. Meet Doug Moorehead, a sharp, athletic guy from Cambridge, Ohio, whose military service took him to Iraq, South America, the Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea. Today, at 37 and retired from the special forces, he's the president of clean-tech startup Earl Energy, where he's using his unique skill set to develop a cheap solar-diesel generator that slashes fuel requirements on the battlefield.

Moorehead got interested in energy efficiency in Iraq. "I'd see huge generators running all the time yet powering very little," he says. He also spent countless hours guarding fuel convoys. Carting diesel to remote bases in Iraq and Afghanistan can cost $35 a gallon or more, and one US soldier is killed or injured for every 24 fuel convoys.

To reduce fuel requirements, Moorehead's new generator uses solar panels, but the really big savings come from a battery module. Instead of going constantly, the diesel engine only has to run for short bursts at maximum efficiency to recharge the batteries. "We take it from running 24 hours down to four or five hours a day," says Moorehead, who worked for lithium-ion-battery giant A123 Systems before launching Earl Energy.

When the US Marine Corps tested his 18-kilowatt hybrid generator in the Mojave Desert, it cut fuel use by 93 percent. The Corps is now using a pair to power two frontline command centers in Afghanistan. The SEALs recently ordered several units. Fuel savings should pay for the devices in about five months. If trials go well, the US military could soon be using thousands of the generators. Moorehead is also developing a megawatt-scale system for the commercial shipping industry. For companies hesitant to try his tech, the special-ops vet says he has ways of making them reconsider.